A-36 Article, page 5

A-36 Article, page 5 Page five of the A-36A Article
from the April 2007 issue of "Flight Journal"
by Scott Schwartz

      We generally avoided being at the altitudes between 300 feet and 12,000 feet. I am not certain of the "exact" numbers for the "safe" altitudes to avoid 20 and 40 mm flak but 12,000 feet is about right to avoid both. The 88 mm of course could reach there, but cutting the fuse for the altitude, loading the gun, firing and the projectile coming up took enough time so that we could generally avoid it by changing altitude or direction slightly every 15 or 20 seconds. This would keep their radar from giving precise information and they would have to fire by guess!
      We normally flew in groups of eight, less often twelve. Red flight led the mission and white flight accompanied. For very large missions (I remember one of thirty six ships) we used blue, green and yellow as flight designations.
      The only true mistake in the writeup is the statement "divided into groups of three or four". We never flew in a group of three unless someone had to return early. This statement misses the binary principle in fighter tactics. One of the great strengths of American fighter tactics was the unit of 2, leader and wingman. They could protect each other. If you were alone, you were ALONE!
      Even the group of four was a pair of twos, the flight leader and wingman and the element leader and his wingman!

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